Expert Project

Real Time Project Management

Expert Project gives you full control of your project's costs and allows instant access to your project's information when you need it. Created by Project Managers for Project Managers, and supported by our unequalled 24 hour/ 7 day technical assistance, Expert Project is the ultimate real time project management tool.

Our comprehensive list of features will satisfy the most demanding project manager for projects of all levels of complexity. Customisable to suit each individual operator, Expert Project enables you to compare your project's estimated budget with your actual costs and your forecast estimate to complete. Expert Project also offers the ability to produce progress claims, estimate variations, record extensions of time, resource, inventory and standing order management tools as well as full earned value (C/SPI) analysis, cash flow and detailed cost analysis’, alert functions for vital actions and performance indicator tools showing as much detail or as global a view as the manager requires. All of this functionality enables the project manager to do more of what they need to be doing – managing – not number crunching.

Expert Project will be an invaluable project management tool and an asset to your entire organisation. Easily integrated throughout your company, Expert Project has multi-user network capabilities, the ability to split a project allowing it to be worked on in different locations and the ability to copy and paste to and from other standard Windows® applications. Expert Project is sure to please the most meticulous project manager.

Expert Project sets the industry standard for reporting. With print preview on all reports, 3-dimensional interactive graphs and company name and logo fields to add a personal touch, Expert Project will ensure that your reports will be clear, concise, accurate and professional.

Thoughtful design coupled with intuitive functionality and a comprehensive interactive help system enable users to become familiar with the program sooner, and to get you up and running in the shortest possible time, training is included with your purchase, as is 24 hr x 7 day product support and regular application updates to ensure that your business is equipped to attain and maintain true industry excellence.

A major contributor to the success of Expert Project is our customer service and unparalleled support. The direct contact we maintain with our clients ensures that Expert Project stays at the forefront of current practices, to not only meet but exceed the dynamic requirements of the industry.

Feel free to contact us for a fully functional trial of Expert Project so you can experience the difference.

Methodology

Expert Project has been developed for contractors to manage their on-site project costs and profitability from the job site, rather than having the costs managed from head office and relayed back to the project (often not in time to correct any problems detected).

Expert Project enables the project manager to record daily or periodic resource usage which provides an instant estimate of the costs incurred on the project for that day. By logging the progress for each Schedule item, the projects actual costs may be compared with the projects budget for analysis of the projects performance from both a cost and progress point of view. This allows your projects performance to be analysed instantly at any time.

By detecting potential problems while they can still be addressed, Expert project has the potential to save your project significant time and money.

The benefits of using this style of project cost control are many:

• The project manager is ultimately in control of the projects costs and has immediate access to all relevant project information.
• There is minimal delay between when work has been performed and when the cost for the work can be analysed.
• Any cost or progress over-run may be detected and rectified while the work is in progress and not days or even months after when the data may be made available from head office.
• By recording periodic resource usage, an analysis of resources production and Resource Flow may be produced and compared to the original estimated resource flow.
• Full Earned Value Analysis calculations may be utilised to show global project performance, project performance by resource type and by Cost Code.

Current users

Expert Project has been successfully used on projects ranging from road and bridgework to tunneling, dams, commercial construction and other major engineering construction work.

Users of Expert Project range from large multi-national engineering companies, government construction departments with hundreds of users, small and medium sized engineering firms and independent contractors.

A brief look at Expert Project's Capabilities

When first setting up a project with Expert Project your tender estimate and budget information may be either imported directly from an Expert Estimation project, or copied and pasted from another standard Windows® based package, or easily entered directly into Expert Project.

Once the project's tender estimate and budget have been entered, a wide variety of options are available for the project manager. Some of these operations are outlined below:

Resource Timesheet - After each day the resources used that day may be recorded using a resource timesheet. The resource timesheet allows you to record an estimate of the actual costs incurred for that day based on the resources actually used. The timesheet also allows for shift information such as weather, correspondence, quality and a site diary to be recorded.

Cost Explorer - Costs that are additional to those entered into the Resource Timesheet (such as Overhead (indirect or preliminary) costs for telephone, office rental etc) may be entered directly into the Cost Explorer. This window also allows you to enter a value of costs to date for a Cost Code, filter and modify cost records and reconcile your invoices to confirm your cost entries.

Progress - So that a comparison can be made between your actual and budget costs, item progress may be entered periodically. This progress may also be used as the basis for the quantities to claim in progress claims.

Variations - A variation item is an item added to the project after the tender that was not allowed for in the original contract. Variations may be quickly and easily created and estimated as and when they occur using the Variation Explorer window. Expert Project utilises the same powerful Cost Estimate window for estimating variations as is used in Expert Estimation, reducing the learning curve for users familiar with the estimating system or those managers who may also be involved in estimating.

Progress Claims - Expert Project has the ability to generate your progress claims for submission to the client automatically based on the quantity of each contract item actually performed. Of course you may also alter the quantities claimed (without affecting your progress data) as and when required. The value of claims paid and any retention held by the client may also be managed from this window.

Project Budget Performance - The Budget Performance window allows the project manager to view both project wide performance of the project and detailed budget and actual costs for each Cost Code. The budget performance also allows you to calculate a forecast cost to complete for each cost code.

Forecast cost to complete - The cost to complete for each cost code may be calculated automatically using one of the in-built calculation routines, or may be estimated from first principles using the same powerful Cost Estimate window and functionality found within Expert Estimation.

Analysis - Once your project is underway, Expert Project provides a wealth of analysis tools to assist the project manager in knowing how the project is performing at any point in time. Analysis tools range from the Project Status window which provides an overview of all of your project's key performance indicators to the Detailed Cost Comparison for analysing how each cost code is performing, and Cashflow for comparing your project's performance to the estimated project cashflow. Added to this is Expert Project's Earned Value Analysis calculations, providing Cost/Schedule Performance information for comparing your project's Budget Cost of Work Scheduled (BCWS), Budget Cost of Work Performed (BCWP) and Actual Cost of Work Performed (ACWP). All of the tools required to comprehensively manage the costs and performance of a project are available at the fingertips of the manager.

Other functionality built into Expert Project include an Extension of Time module for recording the status of any events that effect the project finish date, an Information Management System for recording and managing all information and documents generated and received by the project, and a Project Action List which reminds the manager of important events that are about to occur, ensuring that important submission dates are never missed.

The areas mentioned above are only a fraction of the comprehensive features that make Expert Project second-to-none for managing the profitability and performance of your projects.

For more information or to request an evaluation copy of Expert Project please select on one of the links below or contact Pronamics.

Further Information on Expert Project

Features

The features page provides a detailed look at the features that make Expert Project the on-site project cost management tool of choice for professional Project Managers.

Training

Included with your purchase of an Expert Project license is a voucher to attend a scheduled, one day hands on training course. This page contains details of what will be covered in your training session.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions on Expert Project and its use.

Evaluate Expert Project

To experience Expert Project yourself, an evaluation may be requested here.